Inside Look: "The Adventures of Juniper in Alodarian."

“The Adventures of Juniper in Alodarian” started out with a bold “UNTITLED”, mocking me in all caps across the page, and it lived that way for most of my writing process, which tells you everything you need to know about Hillary’s adventures in writing.

When I started writing this quarter, I had an idea of where I was heading with the short story. I had a detailed outline and I knew what was expected of me at each turn in the narrative. I had basically written myself a blueprint that I was going to fill in with moments of emotion. The story was meant to serve as a prequel to a novella that I am writing. It took me weeks to get anything down on the page even though I had it meticulously planned. I had put myself into a strict box from the very beginning, holding myself to standards and a story direction before I even gave myself a chance to start. I shunned my creative mind.

A few weeks into the quarter, when I was starting to feel the weight of not having anything written, I underwent a life event, in which I was isolated for several days, left with a mind that would not turn off, wishing I could escape to another world or go back to simpler days. 

This is where my writing came to life. 

I built a magical candy land in which Juniper could explore and marvel at the unique, vivid images and creatures she met, allowing me to escape alongside her. The characters she met were unpredictable, unstable, which was indicative of what I was feeling in these moments. I allowed this emotion to fuel my writing and I completely destroyed the plan I had created. For the first time in my life, I wrote without having a clue of where I was heading. I didn’t know who Juniper would meet on the road or what would happen to her if she met the wrong person. When I reached the end, I had gone on a magical journey in a new land just as I had hoped.

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